If an Enforcer Is on Osiander’s List, Maybe He Needs to Think Really Big

Lack of imagination, as much as anything else, is what kills franchises, and Major League Soccer would be well advised to become a little more daring.

The league brings its coaches, general managers and more than 200 players to UC Irvine on Friday for a 10-day “combine,” at which each players’ potential will be assessed before the MLS draft in February.

But if Los Angeles Galaxy Coach Lothar Osiander wants to get a jump on the rest of the league, he should take some time off from Irvine and visit USC and Loyola Marymount.

There, he can introduce himself to a couple of football and basketball players who have been completely overlooked by Sunil Gulati, the MLS deputy commissioner who has been signing players from around the world while ignoring two excellent prospects in his own backyard.

Osiander says that one of his priorities is signing “an enforcer,” someone to give the Galaxy some bite. Who better for that role than Trojan defensive end Israel “Izzy” Ifeanyi, an imposing 6 feet 5 and 250 pounds.

Then there is Loyola Marymount center Ime Oduok, an even more intimidating 6-9 and 230, who, like Ifeanyi, was raised in Nigeria with a soccer ball at his feet.

Just imagine the pair at the center of the Galaxy defense. Jorge Campos wouldn’t even be needed in goal.

Ifeanyi is probably headed for a the NFL, and Oduok could, with luck, end up in the NBA. But who knows, they might jump at the chance to return to soccer.

Ludicrous? They didn’t think so. MLS might not have bothered to contact them, but we did.

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“I started to play when I started to walk,” Ifeanyi said. “Soccer is the Nigerian sport. That’s the first game you played in the backyard of your house, you played on the streets, it’s like you walk around with the ball.

“I loved it. I really loved it. It was like second nature, you know what I mean?

“Even now, when I see people play soccer, I always take a minute or two to play with them, to see if I’ve still got it.”

The story is the same for Oduok.

“I played, I’d say, the equivalent of high school [soccer in Nigeria],” he said. “My school, in Calabar, had one of the top soccer programs in the nation. We produced a lot of good players who went on to play for the national team and professionally in Europe.”

Oduok might have followed that route himself but for an on-field mishap.

“One of the reasons soccer didn’t work out for me was because I messed up my toe,” he said. “I didn’t have shoes to wear, so I used to play barefoot. One day [while] playing, I kicked a stone on the ground and messed up my big toe, and I never thought I’d be able play soccer again.

“Otherwise, I was really interested in pursuing a soccer career.”

For Ifeanyi, the motivation was not quite as strong. He left Nigeria at 19 dreaming of a career in American football, a dream that took him all the way to Monday’s Rose Bowl.

“I was very good [at soccer],” he said. “I represented my school. I represented my state. If I’d kept on playing, I had a chance to [play professionally].

“When you’re playing good, it [playing in Europe] is one of the things that crosses your mind, because there are a lot of Nigerians who have done that. It crossed my mind, but it wasn’t something that I wanted to do.

“If [American] football wasn’t my first love when it comes to sports, if it wasn’t something I always wanted to do, and I was given a choice to say which other sport I could see myself playing, I’d probably say soccer.”

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Despite the difficulty of keeping up with the international game in Los Angeles, both players said they try their best to do so.

“I do [miss it] a little bit,” Ifeanyi said. “My roommate--he’s Nigerian too--was telling me not long ago that we have to go find a team that plays soccer.

“I still watch the Spanish channels that show a lot of soccer.”

The same goes for Oduok.

“I follow it a lot,” he said. “I subscribe to Soccer America [magazine], just to keep up with what’s going on in soccer around the world. I watch Spanish [-language] television whenever I can.

“I play here at Loyola, especially when the basketball season isn’t going on; we have intramurals.

“It [the passion for the game] will never die.”

Oduok lists two Nigerian World Cup players--Finidi George and Sunday Olisah--as his favorite athletes [not, significantly, Michael Jordan or Shaquille O’Neil] and Ajax Amsterdam and Everton as his favorite teams.

He and Ifeanyi closely chart the progress of the Nigerian national team, both referring to it as “we.”

“I was disappointed that Nigeria lost to Italy [in the second round of World Cup ‘94],” Ifeanyi said. “They should have won it. We had the type of team that could have gone to the final. I didn’t think anybody could beat us.”

And from Oduok:

“We played England a while ago at Wembley, right after the World Cup. They [the English] were lucky and won, 1-0.”

In soccer, patriotism runs deep.

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So what about MLS? Would either player consider that option, given the opportunity?

Ifeanyi sees himself more likely as a spectator than a player.

“Sure, I’d go to [MLS] games,” he said. “Hopefully, everything will work out for me in football and I’ll be able to.”

Oduok, on the other hand, wouldn’t mind a more active role. He has experience both as a striker and a central defender, he said.

“I’ve been thinking about that [playing for MLS],” he said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen when I graduate in May, but if things work out and I stay around here and the basketball season doesn’t coincide with the soccer league, I’m thinking of trying.”